Exploring Media Research: Theories, Practice, and Purpose - Softcover

Ruddock, Andy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1473902541 ISBN 13: 9781473902541

Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd, 2017

Synopsis

Donald Trump’s use of Twitter, the "Angelina Effect," social media mourning, cyber-bullying: in today’s media environment, evidence of media influence is all around us. As such, good media research is more important than ever, and crucially, is something all students can and should do.

In Exploring Media Research, author Andy Ruddock explains that the only way to learn or teach about media research is to do it. Carefully balancing theory and practice, he demystifies the process, showing you don’t need huge amounts of time or money to do meaningful media analysis. This book:

• Explains how principles of motivation, causation, generalizability, and ethics apply to media research.
• Outlines different forms of ‘reality’ created by media stories, media users, and the blending of media and interpersonal communication.
• Identifies key areas of research, from media industries, content and events to regulation, policy and audiences.
• Demonstrates how key concepts translate into actual research methods, from archival and field research to the analysis of ‘big data’.
• Brings theory to life throughout with a range of contemporary case studies.

Exploring Media Research is a thoughtful, pragmatic approach to both gathering and analyzing media data, and so making sense of the chaotic, complex, compelling world of media influence in the 21st century. It is essential reading for students and researchers across media, communication, and cultural studies.

About this title

About the Author

Andy Ruddock lectures in Communications and Media Studies at Monash University. He has authored four books on researching media influence. Andy is known for his work on Cultivation Theory. He has published over 50 book chapters and journal articles, applying this theory to media violence, gaming, reality TV, political celebrity pornography, drug and alcohol abuse, sport and media education. Andy is currently writing Cultivation Theory and Digital Media Challenges. This new book details the history of cultivation theory and explains its relevance to contemporary “isms”; activism, sexism, Trumpism, and extremism.

Review

In Exploring Media Research, Andy Ruddock provides the theoretical, methodological, and ethical tools that enable scholars, students, and citizens to dissect the cultural power of media, and to apply this understanding to the creation of a more just society. Written in a direct and accessible style, this timely and provocative book firmly establishes Ruddock as one of the premier media scholars of his generation.
-- Elizabeth Bird

There can be no more pressing topic in current affairs today than the role of the media. From questions of warfare to public health, we get our information as citizens from these massively powerful institutions. But how do we interrogate those very entities whom we trust to interrogate others? Andy Ruddock explains all in a patient but crisp, historically-informed but very contemporary book. We are in his debt.

-- Toby Miller

This is a book that is sorely needed: an introduction to media research that is both comprehensive and thorough in its theoretical reach, and absolutely contemporary in its examples, in its applications, and in its conceptualisation of the key targets for media research today.

-- Graeme Turner

Edition details

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1473902541
• ISBN 13: 9781473902541
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320